Sheffield Eagles: Boost as pair agree to stay

Matt Young

Sheffield Eagles want to stem the flow of high profile departures as they look to finalise fresh terms with their remaining contracted players.

The Star understands that Matty Fozard and Duane Straugheir are two of the names that have agreed to remain with the Eagles, with announcements planned imminently as negotiations reach their conclusion.

The news will come as a welcome boost for the club who have been hit hard following the departures of two of last season’s key performers in George Tyson and Cory Aston.

But whilst there could yet be another high profile casualty, director of rugby Mark Aston is confident that the remaining group will put pen-to-paper to form the core of next season’s squad.

“Over the next few weeks there will be some great announcements that the fans will be excited about,” Aston said.

“The fans will be disappointed because we have lost George Tyson and Cory, but we are confident we can keep hold of the rest and over the next week or so we will be giving some positive news.

“There is something going on with one of the players which may mean another departure, but aside from that most of the lads have agreed to stay which we will be looking to announce over the next week or so.”

With Tyson joining Adam Neal in returning to Oldham, and Aston Jnr stepping up to Super League with Leeds Rhinos, Aston knows he has his work cut out to plug the gaps.

Whilst the majority of the Kingstone Press Championship are finalising their squad for next season, the Eagles are being forced to play catch-up as they look to rubber stamp an agreement with a new ‘sponsor’ which will finance Aston’s re-building operation.

Part of that project is to finally formally sign the agreement with the sponsor, whilst also confirm a venue for next season – two key factors which Aston says are close to completion.

“I think within the next week we will have something nailed down,” he added.

“That goes for the venue, the squad – everything. We are looking for the sponsor to sign up this week, the RFL are happy with what we are doing so we are looking at budgets and everything else to move forward.”

The club are attempting to remain in the city, but the Eagles have also held talks with Wakefield about a possible ground share for next season.